This section requires expansion with: information on Gannett's early history (1923-1986). (October 2012)

Gannett Company, Inc. was formed in 1923 by Frank Gannett in Rochester, New York as an outgrowth of a newspaper business he had begun in Elmira, New York in 1906. Gannett, who was known as a conservative,[5] gained fame and fortune by purchasing small independent newspapers and developing them into a large chain, a 20th-century trend that helped the newspaper industry remain financially viable.[6] By 1979, the chain had grown to 79 newspapers.[7]

In 1979, Gannett acquired Combined Communications Corp., operator of 17 television stations, as well as an outdoor advertising division, for $370 million.[8][9] The outdoor advertising became known as Gannett Outdoor, before being acquired by Outdoor Systems (previously a division of 3M), before the company was sold to Infinity Broadcasting, which later became part of Viacom, and was part of CBS Corporation, until 2014 when CBS Outdoor went independent and became Outfront Media.

Beginning in 2005 at the Fort Myers News-Press, Gannett pioneered the mojo concept of mobile multimedia journalists, reporters who were initially untethered from conventional newsrooms and drove around their communities filing hyperlocal news via Wi-Fi in various formats including text for print publication, still photos for print and online publication, and audio and video for the News-Press website.[11] The practice has spread throughout the chain.[citation needed]

On March 7, 2011, Gannett replaced the stylized "G" logo in use since the 1970s (notably used on its TV stations as a corporate/local ID with different animations), and adopted a new company tagline: "It's all within reach."[12]

In 2010, Gannett increased executive salaries and bonuses; for example, Bob Dickey, Gannett's U.S. newspapers division president, was paid $3.4 million in 2010, up from $1.9 million the previous year. The next year, the company laid off 700 U.S. employees to cut costs. In the memo announcing the layoffs, Dickey wrote, "While we have sought many ways to reduce costs, I regret to tell you that we will not be able to avoid layoffs."[13]

Gannett Logo used until March 2011.

In February 2012, Gannett announced that it would implement a paywall system across all of its daily newspaper websites, with non-subscriber access will be limited to between five and 15 articles per month, varying by newspaper. The USA Today website became the only one to allow unrestricted access.[14]

On March 24, 2012, the company announced that it would discipline 25 employees in Wisconsin who had signed the petition to recall Governor Scott Walker, stating that this open public participation in a political process was a violation of the company's code of journalistic ethics and that their primary responsibility as journalists was to maintain credibility and public trust in themselves and the organization.[15]

Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a dispute against Dish Network regarding compensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper digital video recorders. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for Gannett's television station. Gannett threatened to pull all of its stations should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement.[17][18] The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours.[19]

On June 13, 2013, Gannett announced plans to buy Dallas-based Belo Corporation for $1.5 billion and the assumption of debt. The purchase would add 20 additional stations to Gannett's portfolio and make the company the fourth largest television broadcaster in the U.S. with 43 stations.[20][21] Because of ownership conflicts that exist in markets where both Belo and Gannett own television stations and newspapers, the use of a third-party company (Sander Media, LLC, owned by former Belo executive Jack Sander) as a licensee to buy stations to be operated by the owner of a same-market competitor and concerns about any possible future consolidation of operations of Gannett- and Belo-owned properties in markets where both own television stations or collusion involving the Gannett and Sander stations in retransmission consent negotiations, anti-media-consolidation groups (such as Free Press) and pay television providers (such as Time Warner Cable and DirecTV) have called for the FCC to block the acquisition.[22][23]

On December 16, 2013, the United States Department of Justice announced that Gannett, Belo, and Sander would need to divest Belo's station in St. Louis, KMOV, to a government-approved third-party that would be barred from entering into any agreements with Gannett, in order to fully preserve competition in advertising sales with Gannett-owned KSDK.[24] The deal was approved by the FCC on December 20,[25] and it was completed on December 23.[26] On February 28, 2014, Meredith Corporation officially took over full control of KMOV.[27]

On May 14, 2014, Gannett announced the acquisition of six stations from the Texas-based London Broadcasting Company in a $215 million deal, including KCEN-TV (NBC) in Waco-Temple-Bryan, KYTX (CBS) in Tyler-Longview, KIII (ABC) in Corpus Christi, KBMT (ABC/NBC) in Beaumont-Port Arthur, KXVA (FOX) in Abilene-Sweetwater and KIDY (FOX) in San Angelo. The company's COO Phil Hurley will also join Gannett to continue his leadership role at the six stations.[28] The acquisition was completed on July 8, 2014; in total, Gannett stations now serve 83% of households in the state.[29] Post acquisition, Gannett now outright owns and operates their first Fox affiliates, KIDY & KXVA.

On August 5, 2014, Gannett announced that it plans to split into two independent publicly-traded companies, one focusing on its newspapers and publishing, which will retain the Gannett name, and one on broadcasting. Robert Dickey—who currently leads Gannett's newspaper group—will serve as CEO of the former company, leaving Gannett's remaining broadcasting and digital operations under the leadership of Martore. In a statement, she explained that the split plans were "significant next steps in our ongoing initiatives to increase shareholder value by building scale, increasing cash flow, sharpening management focus, and strengthening all of our businesses to compete effectively in today's increasingly digital landscape." Additionally, the company announced that it would buy out the remainder of Classified Ventures—a joint venture between Gannett and several other media companies, for $1.8 billion, giving it full ownership of properties such as Cars.com.[30][31] On April 21, 2015, Gannett announced that the publishing arm would continue to use the Gannett name, while the broadcasting and digital company would be named Tegna.[32] The split was completed on June 29, 2015. The split was structured so that the old Gannett changed its name to Tegna, and then spun off its publishing interests as a "new" Gannett Company.